WWALS Watershed Coalition advocates for conservation and stewardship of the Withlacoochee, Willacoochee, Alapaha, Little, and Suwannee River watersheds in south Georgia and north Florida through education, awareness, environmental monitoring, and citizen activities.

Tag Archives: Hahira

Tifton, Georgia, May 1, 2019 —
“This was the first year a canoe finished first to win the $100 cash prize,”
said Bret Wagenhorst, main organizer of the BIG Little River Paddle Race, last Saturday, April 27, at Reed Bingham State Park.
“It was a two-person canoe of gentlemen from Gray, GA:
Wayne Hale and Terry Donahue.”

Dr. Wagenhorst added,
“Thanks to all the paddlers from across Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, as far away as Mexico, who came out on a glorious south GA
spring day to help raise money for the WWALS Watershed Coalition and
the Friends of Reed Bingham State Park group by paddling a scenic
and winding stretch of the Little River. Lots of fun in the sun for
friends and families.”

Last night Georgia legislators from all over the state,
including numerous committee chairs,
feasted on quail supplied by Lowndes County and Valdosta in the annual
Bird Supper,
a six-decade tradition of local lobbying in the Georgia state capitol.

I thanked Jeff Jones (District 167) for his new
coal ash bills, and reminded other legislators to vote for them this year,
like they did his earlier ones last year: Continue reading →

Gretchen and Dave and me had a fine time Friday at the
Hahira Honeybee Festival.
Families really like the EnviroScape.
Come on down today and see Bobby and the McKenzie clan march in the parade
with Suwannee Riverkeeper!

Here is every spill reported by all the large wastewater permits
in the state of Georgia since the beginning of 2015 through this Tuesday,
September 18, 2018.
It includes spills in the Suwannee River Basin you probably didn’t know about.

If people downstream want to do something about wastewater coming from Georgia,
this data suggests two things:
insist Georgia publish spill reports online the same day like
Florida and Alabama already do.
And help fund WWALS water quality testing
so we can find out what’s going on and when.

Schedules of testing, with permissable levels: these are in National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) wastewater
permits,
so we need to see those permits.
You’d think they’d be on the EPA or GA-EPD website, but….

The U.S. EPA has delegated NPDES permitting to Georgia.
You can get draft wastewater permits right off
the GA-EPD website,
but to get the actual current approved permits, you must get GA-EPD
to send them to you.
I found this out from Audra Dickson, Wastewater Regulatory Program Manager.
I asked her for permits for half a dozen cities and one county,
and the next day Alyssa Thomson, Environmental Specialist,
Wastewater Regulatory Program, Municipal Permitting Unit,
sent them via email.

Hahira, GA, April 29, 2018 —
With the first-ever winner from Florida and a new record time,
the next two categories one each from Tift and Lowndes Counties, Georgia,
and a record number paddlers from 4 to 67 years old,
the
BIG Little River Paddle Race at Reed Bingham State Park Saturday
was a fun time and a successful fundraiser for
Friends of Reed Bingham State Park (FORB) and WWALS Watershed Coalition (WWALS).

Lloyd Reeves drove three hours from Crescent City, Florida,
with a very fast kayak, to become the first-ever Florida winner,
and he proved himself a winner in another way with the prize.

In addition to the First Prize trophy, winner Reeves got
a hundred dollar bill from race organizer Bret Wagenhorst of WWALS.
and a matching hundred dollar bill from Dianne Walters of FORB.
Reeves then Continue reading →

Who knows the Ockolocoochee River?
No, not the Ochlockonee River; that’s a bit to the west.
You do know the Ockolocoochee River as the Little River,
of the Withlacoochee, of the Suwannee.
Here is news from 1889 that also includes the
boat that didn’t survive from Troupville to Ellaville,
which was apparently not a paddlewheel steamer.